I've suggested (& published in 18 journal papers) a new theory called quantised inertia (or MiHsC) that assumes that inertia is caused by relativistic horizons damping quantum fields. It predicts galaxy rotation, cosmic acceleration & the emdrive without any dark stuff or adjustment.My Plymouth University webpage is here, I've written a book called Physics from the Edge and I'm on twitter as @memcculloch

Saturday, 5 January 2013

The Andromeda Pancake

Astronomers (Ibata et al., 2013) have just managed to show that many of the satellite galaxies of the large Andromeda galaxy M31 are co-rotating en masse about it in a plane, just like the planets in the Solar system orbit the Sun. The satellite galaxies' orbits may also be aligned with the rotation of the Milky Way. There is no known way to explain this with standard models of galaxy formation. Their article is here:

These satellite galaxies are definitely in the regime of MiHsC, with a very low acceleration which makes me wonder. Are they orbiting like this to maintain their acceleration above the MiHsC minimum: 2c^2/Theta? Or, since they are some way from the mass of the Andromeda galaxy, is their inertial mass being influenced also by more distant matter? Is there an inertial interaction between galaxies that makes them align like magnets? Anyway, it is a nice anomaly to think about.